Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to airless tires capable of structurally supporting the weight of a vehicle, and more particularly to an airless tire and a hub for an airless tire which may offer excellent steering stability.
Description of the Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2014-218132 discloses an airless tire which includes a cylindrical tread ring having a ground contact surface, a hub disposed radially inward of the tread ring and a plurality of spokes each connecting the tread ring to the hub. The hub of the airless tire disclosed in the publication also includes a disk portion to be fixed to an axle and a cylindrical portion extending in an axial direction of the tire from a radially outer portion of the disk portion. The cylindrical portion of the hub is configured to have substantially a constant thickness.
The cylindrical portion of the hub is required to have high rigidity in order to make tread rings of airless tires contact with a road with a proper orientation. From results of various experiments, unfortunately, it has been found that a portion of the cylindrical portion that is farthest from the disk portion tends to elastically deform when receiving lateral force on cornering. This may bring deterioration in ground contact property of tread rings, and therefore steering stability of airless tires may be deteriorated.